There have been 4 Star Wars movies since Disney took over the franchise. 2 released, 2 in production.

Key people have left 3 of them: Michael Arndt (TFA writer), Alexandre Desplat (Rogue One composer) and now Lord/Miller (Han Solo directors).

Is this an accident? Coincidence? Trend?

Looks like The Last Jedi will be praised by both generations of fans, given there's been no troubles with that movie and because Rian Johnson will make sure not to make TLJ an ESB rehash and will make it original. Plus, since Rian's a big Prequel Trilogy and Clone Wars fan/defender, I'd hope for some connections from those parts of SW in the movie like hopefully that alleged cameo of Hayden Christensen as Force Ghost Anankin.

I think he's probably referring to Josh Trank getting fired from the last Fantastic Four movie while it was still in production. That was Fox though not Disney/LFL. This sort of thing does seem to be happening more often lately though.

think he's probably referring to Josh Trank getting fired from the last Fantastic Four movie while it was still in production. That was Fox though not Disney/LFL. This sort of thing does seem to be happening more often lately though.

Trank was set to direct an Anthology film (rumored to be a Boba Fett movie) and was fired before production began. Maybe they were in pre-production?

The Hollywood Reporter published a new article with more details. So far, everyone looks bad, but Howard.

The rewrites with Rogue One turned out to be the right call. I hope the same thing happens here.

Really interesting reading.

However... "Edwards, who conceived of Rogue One as a dark war film, was shunted aside..." is not what happened.

Edwards had originally envisioned everyone getting killed at the end of R1, but didn't think Disney/Lucasfilm would buy it. Much to his pleasant surprise, they told him to go for it and keep his original vision. The reshoots didn't change that.

There's definitely some revisionism there to feed the controversy of the story. Kennedy is clearly very protective of the brand, and believes Star Wars is not yet in a safe enough place where it can take artistic chances. Assuming the ST wraps up respectably (still time for Trevorrow to be replaced!), I believe Lucasfilm will give more rope to the next crop of filmmakers.

Apparently there's enough footage shot by Lord & Miller that can be used i.e the movie doesn't have to be started from scratch. My guess is L&M begun production by playing by the rules but as the shoot went on got fairly loose filming improv, moving away from the script etc - that's what they were booted so far into filming.

I have complete faith in Kathleen Kennedy she runs a fckn tight ship and rightly so - the Han Solo character you cannot take liberties with or disrespect.

We should also consider the months of pre-production and effects work that was already being done before principal photography began. They're not going to scrap all of that because a new director is taking the helm now.